Sunday, 14 September 2014

Meant to Be by Lauren Morrill

How I Felt: This book was just okay to me. There was nothing in particular that stood out and made this a GREAT book. This book had the same characteristics of every other contemporary, and just became tedious and annoying at times. The two main characters (love interests) both hated each other in the beginning, and then slowly throughout the story, both realized they like each other. But other characters got in the way, they had a huge fight, they denied their love for each other, and then on the last page they FINALLY tell the other person they like them. This is often the case in most contemporary books, and usually I don't mind it too much, but the part that really annoys me is when the characters announce their love for each other on the last page and then we don't get to see them together. There were also a few minor things that got on my nerves like how Julia (protagonist) would always say: thankyouverymuch at the end of almost every sentence, this got to be annoying after a while. I also didn't enjoy how we never got to meet Phoebe or Julia's mom, especially since they both played huge rolls in Julia's life. I did really enjoy how this book was set in England and we got to learn a lot about the country and feel like we were really there. I also liked how there was a big focus of literature, like Shakespeare and Jane Austen. I don't think we got that much of a backstory on Julia's life, we only saw her in England where she was learning to become a new, more out-going person, but we never really got to see the Julia she was before the trip and that to me was a little disappointing. This book was focused on love, what it means to love, what it means to be loved, and what love is really all about, I really enjoyed this aspect of the book, and I really liked how Lauren wrote this aspect of the book. I don't have that much else to say about this book, really. It was good and a fairly quick read, I can't say I highly recommend it, but if you like contemporary you might enjoy this.Favourite Quotes:

“I need to experience books, not just read them.”

“There's a difference between preferring books to parties and preferring sixteen cats to seeing the light of day.”

"There are perfect people, many of them, and it's up to you to grab one when you find each other in the random chaos of life and love.”

“Point is, maybe some people wouldn't want to be around me all day, but there are people out there who would. And they're smart and funny. And they like some of the same things I like and hate some of the things I hate, but they also introduce me to all kinds of new things. That's as close to 'meant to be' as I can imagine.”

“Someone once told me love isn’t perfect—or predictable.”

“When all along... well, what I was hoping you'd realize...''My mystery guy was you,' I finish in a whisper."

“But things work out, you know? Even if it doesn't feel okay for a long time, or even if it feels like things will never be okay again, everything works out in the end.”

***Quotes taken from Meant to Be by Lauren Morrill and Goodreads.com****Info on book taken from Goodreads.com*